Bedford Co., VA – A group of wounded veterans is coming to our area next week, where they will train to protect children from online predators.

The Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force will host the HERO (Human Exploitation Rescue Operative) Child Rescue Corps. The fourth class in the program will train for a month at the task force’s Bedford County headquarters. A recently installed elevator will allow the veterans to access the forensic lab and classrooms.

The 2013 federal sequestration threatened to end the program before it even started. That’s when Sheriff Mike Brown’s Safe Surfin’ Foundation and Moose International bought the laptops that kept the program going. Sheriff Brown traveled to Oak Ridge, Tennessee that summer to meet with the inaugural class.

Local Vietnam veteran and advocate Steve Bozeman will be one of the speakers at a welcome event for the program participants Monday.

“They can get a job, working with some agencies and help solve some of these problems,” said Steve Bozeman. “These bad guys, take them off the street just like they did taking them off the streets in Iraq and Afghanistan. Get rid of ’em.”

The veterans will be presented with keys to Bedford County and with lifetime memberships to the local Military Order of the Purple Heart chapter.

On July 22, 2015, deputies with the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office responded to 5330 Old Country Road in Bedford in reference to an assault call. Upon arrival, deputies spoke to Matthew Caruso who was suffering from numerous cuts and lacerations. Caruso told the deputies that he had responded to a Craigslist.com ad offering sexual services by a subject identifying herself as “Trinity”, and he had arranged with her to meet at her residence at 5330 Old Country Road. Upon arrival, Caruso reports that “Trinity”, later identified as Jennifer Bandy-Mitchell, tied him up and assaulted him with a weapon. Caruso was able to escape the residence through a window and was able to contact the Sheriff’s Office. Deputies located Brandy-Mitchell at her residence and took her into custody without incident. She was transferred to the Blue Ridge Jail Authority, Bedford Adult Detention Facility where she was held without bond. Bandy-Mitchell was charged with Malicious Wounding, Abduction, and Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Felony. Caruso was treated for his injuries at the hospital and released.

Bedford County, VA – If you are planning to meet up with a stranger to buy or sell something, there’s a safe place to do it in Bedford County.

This “Exchange Zone” was just set up in front of the Sheriff’s Office. The two parking spaces are video monitored 24-7. There is always someone inside the building watching and deputies can review the camera footage.

The Sheriff welcomes anyone to use the zone, even if you don’t live in Bedford County. He said the zone is in response to a community safety need.

“We have calls here about I’m getting ready to sell something, or buy something, through Craigslist, what should I do? What precautions should I take,” said Sheriff Mike Brown.

Bedford Domestic Violence Services and the Bedford County Department of Social Services is telling clients to use the zone when they need to meet someone to exchange property or for child visitation.

Sheriff Mike Brown is pleased to announce that the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officers, under the command of Capt. Tim Hayden and Sgt. Randy Smith, attended the Virginia State YOVASO (Youth Of VA Speak Out) awards dinner, held at the James Madison University. Each SRO coordinates a YOVASO team in the high and middle schools in Bedford county. Students create campaigns that promote safe driving habits, seat belt usage, no texting while driving and how to be a responsible passenger.

Out of 146 schools throughout the state, Bedford County SROs and their schools walked away with seven of the top awards, over 50%, including Cpl. Ryan Hilbish, Law Enforcement Officer of the Year, his school principal, Dr. Leann Calvert of Jefferson Forest High, received the School Administrator of the Year, Jefferson Forest High also received the Outstanding YOVASO Club of the Year. Deputy Chris Cook, SRO of Staunton River High was awarded school Resource Officer of the year and Staunton River High won YOVASO Club of the Year. Student Volunteer of the Year went to Grace Overstreet, daughter of Stephanie Overstreet, who received the Shining Star Award for her efforts in promoting teen driver safety through her foundation “F.O.C.U.S. for ABB” which was established in memory of her daughter, Ashley.

“I am extremely proud of these SROs who instill positive influence through their interaction with these people and encourage responsible driving safety in these teen drivers.” Said Sheriff Brown, “We have lost too many of our young people to car crashes in this county and programs like this have brought that ugly statistic down dramatically over the past five years. I congratulate all the students and the SROs for their hard work and the school administrators encouraging them by embracing this program.”

Bedford, VA – If you are the mystery couple who treated five Bedford County sheriff’s deputies to dinner Friday night, they’d like to thank you once again.

The deputies were on their dinner break at Applebee’s before returning to the range to train.

They exchanged polite conversation with the couple at the next table, even shared an appetizer.

On the couple’s way out, the woman slipped one of the deputies a $100 bill to pay for their meals, which the deputy tried to give back to the man with her.

“We said sir, there’s five of us here,” said Sgt. Chris Edmondson. “He said I know that and he turned around and subsequently walked out the door. We were amazed to say the least that a citizen would do that.”

SCAM ALERT!!!

Bedford, VA – Once again, a Bedford resident has been fooled by a scam and is out $3000.

Sheriff Brown can’t stress enough; “NEVER send money to anyone claiming that you have won something but must pay money in order to claim it! It’s a scam. These people are good at fooling you and are really good at stealing your money!”

Please share this information with everyone you know, especially our seniors, since they are the ones most heavily targeted.

Please report any scams via phone or mail to the Sheriff’s Office; 540-586-4800 so that we can then share with other residents.

To read the newspapers and watch TV one would think that law enforcement is despised by most of the public…not true, and we in law enforcement know it. I receive notes and calls every week from citizens that congratulate our deputies on their service to them personally or to someone they know. This scenario was played out yesterday, Wednesday, in Forest and this office wants to recognize the citizens who took the time to assist one of our deputies. We will have a short ceremony in the parking lot of Trio’s Pizza, Forest, VA,(beside Sheetz near Perrowville Road) Friday, June 12 at 2:00PM.At least one of the ‘Good Samaritan Citizens’ will be there to accept our thanks and a small token of our appreciation. We are attempting to locate the others.

Please see below the comments from Deputy Daniel’s email sent to me this morning.

“Yesterday during my motorcycle pursuit, that turned into foot pursuit in Forest, I was reminded that even with all that is taking place in our country, law enforcement ‘battering’ , that we still have some grateful citizens in our community that appreciate what we do. This happened yesterday and took place in probably the busiest part of the day, lots of traffic, in Forest. As a result, a lot of citizens witnessed this ordeal. Also, a lot of people, including the motorcyclist, could have been injured, possibly killed due to his reckless regard for the public. Due to manpower being stretched razor thin with our office I didn’t have a back up unit even remotely close…not blaming anyone…we were super busy. Not one but 4 different citizens stopped to help. The first one pointed me in the direction where the cyclist had gone… I had lost sight of the driver and was not sure which way to go. Then I was stopped by another man who told me which way the driver went after he had abandoned his motorcycle. After a grueling foot pursuit , a citizens stopped gave me a ride on the back of his truck to get closer to the suspect who had crossed Rt. 221 and entered Trio Pizza. Once inside the pizza restaurant employees pointed to where the suspect was hiding. After he was taken into custody several people at the bank near Sheetz clapped and cheered as he was walked back to my patrol car. I know we get thanks from the public, but I wish somehow I could thank the public for their support. So the moral of story is keep your head up sheep dogs, some still support what we do!”

“The Bedford Crime Prevention Coalition” is a coalition composed of both members of the community (parents and residents) and providers of social services, law enforcement, businesses, spiritual leaders, school representatives, and many other interested or concerned parties. We believe that all forms of violence are unacceptable and that community life requires nonviolent resolution of conflict.

Chief Todd Foreman is a leader in this arena and I am excited to be a part of this effort and look forward to assisting him and the coalition in this program. Too many times lately we hear from the media and other sources about the lack of empathy of our police community toward the communities that we serve. This is one example of the efforts that the town police and the sheriff’s office are undertaking to show our communities that we are concerned for our citizens, adults, teens and children.

Please review the attached flyer and schedule a reporter or camera crew to visit the event and see what the efforts of this small, but concerned, group of concerned leaders can do.

There will be free food and drinks…and, a basketball tournament that will ‘dazzle’ even the most rabid sports fan!”